The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

durhamregion.com 4 The Citizen January 22, 2015 Emily Blesse (right) smiled at Paige Garside while they had their heads shaved during the Pedal for Hope fundraising tour that made a stop in Durham Region. Almost 100 students particpated in the head shave, to help raise money in the Pedal for Hope fundraiser, that supports pediatric cancer research. Dante DaSilva-Cabral, Katelyn Tablan and Lily Issa wait the start of the special mass held at John XXIII Catholic School, which was held to celebrate the canonization of Pope John XXIII. Every year I'm asked to pick a handful of my favourite pho-tos I've taken over the year, and I usually struggle with narrowing it down because I tend to get attached to a lot of the photographs I take. Sometimes it might just be because of the way the light is hitting the subject, or the composition of the photo, but usually it's because of the moment and the story behind it. For example, the photo of the two young girls getting their head shaved for cancer research. It's not often little girls will shave their heads so I was struck by their braveness and generosity, but I really just loved their smiles while they were doing it. I thought it was such a great moment frozen in time. I can't wait to see what's in store for 2015! Photos of the year 2014 The official opening of the Park of Reflection, at Cullen Gardens. Firefighters were on the scene of a large blaze at Fairview Lodge late last year. Photos by Sabrina Byrnes